The single-story Crick house has four bedrooms, four bathrooms, two garages, a pool, an office and a studio.

The family of the late Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick is offering a $10,000 finder's fee to the person who helps them locate the ideal buyer for the scientist's home near the Muirlands West section of La Jolla.

The four-bedroom, four-bath house at 1792 Colgate Circle has been put on the market for $1.95 million. Crick lived in the ranch-style house from 1978 until his death in 2004.

"We would like to sell the house to someone who appreciates its historic value so we are trying a dual approach," Crick's son, Michael Crick, said by email. "First we are offering a $10,000 finder's fee (through Feb. 28) aimed at people, such as Rosalia (Mariz, a long-time family friend), who knew my parents and also knew scientists all over the world.

"If we don't get a good offer in that time, we will try the conventional approach through local Realtor Greg Noonan -- who will focus on the local market."

Francis Crick achieved worldwide fame in 1962 when he shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins. Watson and Crick discovered the fundamental structure of DNA, a discovery that would revolutionize genetics and molecular biology, eventually leading to the Human Genome Project and widespread advances in pharmacology.

Correction: Earlier versions of this story had Watson's name spelled incorrectly.

Crick's most groundbreaking work occurred at Cambridge University. But he later transferred to the Salk Institute of Biological Studies, where he played a key role in the growth of the La Jolla research center. He died of colon cancer in La Jolla in July 2004.